Schools' changes of heart offer reminder: Recruits beware
By summer's end, hundreds of high school players will have given oral commitments to the college basketball program of their choice. Every last one of them should know the story of Keena Young, because what happened to him could happen to them.
And even if it doesn't, they still should know the story of Keena Young. They should know, so they'll be grateful.
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| Bob Knight's Red Raiders turned on Keena Young as well as the Johnson brothers, Kendrick and Calvin.(Getty Images) |
Yes, he was.
Twice.
Young will be a newcomer this season at Brigham Young, a 6-foot-7 sophomore wing with three years of eligibility. He used his first year at a junior college in Texas, where he spent the 2003-04 season despite having the grades to play almost anywhere in the country as a Division I freshman.
Young wound up at South Plains College thanks to the manipulative recruiting tactics of Memphis coach John Calipari. Calipari used Young to get a commitment from his high school teammate, stud center Kendrick Perkins, offering them both scholarships.
Both signed with Memphis, but Perkins never made it. He was selected No. 27 overall in the 2003 NBA Draft by the Grizzlies (and later traded to Boston), and when Perkins informed Calipari that he wouldn't be coming to the Tigers, Calipari informed Young that he wouldn't be coming, either.
"I guess he thought he was getting a package deal," Young says. "A few weeks after telling me my scholarship was gone, he said I could have it back, but I probably wouldn't play until my senior year. My mother didn't think I would be treated well if I went up there, so I accepted my release."
Being effectively cut loose by Calipari that late in the summer cost Young any shot of landing with a high-level Division I program. That's how he ended up at South Plains.
That it happened once to Young is shameful. That it nearly happened a second time is despicable.
Midway through his freshman season at South Plains, Young committed to Texas Tech. That was in January. A short time later, a member of Red Raiders coach Bob Knight's staff visited South Plains to watch Young, who was in the midst of a slump. A short time after that, Young says, the Red Raiders called South Plains coach Steve Green to say Texas Tech no longer had a scholarship for Young.
However, the Tech coach said, if Young wanted to walk on ...
"If I were to go there, I'd have to take out student loans and work while playing basketball," Young says. "My parents didn't really like that, so we opened my recruitment back up."
Young was prepared to spend a second season at South Plains when BYU coach Steve Cleveland offered a scholarship. That was nice, but then Cleveland did something really cool: He stood behind his offer.
Young is at BYU this summer getting ready for the 2004-05 season.
"I've got a happy ending," Young says. "I'm in a good place, so I'm not too worried about what happened in the past."
What happened to Young at Memphis and Texas Tech -- messages left with both Calipari and Knight haven't yet been returned -- doesn't happen often to recruits, but it happens just enough for them to be wary. In recent months, Oklahoma State and -- again -- Texas Tech have backed off scholarship offers to mid-level recruits. Both schools had their reasons, but excuse us if we hold our nose just the same.
Last year, Oklahoma State made an early scholarship offer to unsung point guard Antonio Hanson of Liberal, Kan. For whatever reason -- perhaps negative recruiting against aging coach Eddie Sutton -- Oklahoma State has been unable to compete with other Big 12 powers for elite high school recruits, which is why the Cowboys have often signed, and developed, lesser-known prospects like Hanson.
Then came Oklahoma State's ascension to the 2004 Final Four, and the announcement that popular assistant Sean Sutton would replace his father whenever Eddie decides to retire. Oklahoma State suddenly rocketed up the list for a number of top players in the class of 2005, including blue-chip point guard Byron Eaton of Dallas. Hanson moved down the list. He no longer expects to attend Oklahoma State, and if that happens, it won't be his choice.
"He's a little hurt by it," says Hanson's coach at Liberal High, Rod Briggs, "but also he understands that an oral commitment isn't binding, and circumstances have changed. The bottom line is (the Cowboys) want to win basketball games. That's well within their rights, and I really don't blame them. It's just unfortunate that a kid has to suffer."
In the case of Texas Tech, two kids -- two in addition to Keena Young, that is -- will have to suffer. In November, the Red Raiders received oral commitments from brothers Kendrick and Calvin Johnson of Morton, Texas. They will be college freshmen for the 2005-06 season, but it won't be at Texas Tech.
Red Raiders assistant coach Pat Knight, Bob's son, called the Johnsons' high school coach last month to say Texas Tech was no longer interested in the brothers. According to Morton coach Gant Caraway, Pat Knight said his school had heard rumors that Calvin Johnson was still looking at other schools, and that bit of disloyalty had soured Texas Tech on both brothers.
"A coach from Wyoming had called Texas Tech and said they'd heard Calvin was open," Caraway says. "Texas Tech got spooked and cut them loose. But the thing is, I wish they'd talked to the kids. When Pat Knight called me to tell me, it was a done deal: 'Here's what we hear, and here's what we're going to do.'"
It must have been coincidental that the recruiting stock of the Johnson brothers, like that of Keena Young in January, had plummeted of late. Caraway, nice young man that he is, honestly does believe that it was coincidental.
"I don't think it was anything where (Texas Tech) was looking to let these kids go and saw this as an opportunity," he says. "But I do know this: If the Johnsons were Ronald McDonald All-Americans, the next LeBron James, this wouldn't have happened to them."
